Overview: Paying Vendor Invoices via ACH

Your credit union can elect to pay certain vendor's invoices via ACH. Let's look at how this works "In a Nutshell."

Additional Resources

Configuring Tools for Accounts Payable booklet

Overview

Ready to move away from paying your vendors via check? Paying vendors via ACH is a great next step for vendor payments! First you will need to ensure your relationship with Magic-Wrighter is in place and activate the feature in CU*BASE. Then you can decide which vendors you will transition to ACH payments, so they no longer receive a check from you.

To assist with communication, you can also send a Payment Advice email to the vendor alerting them that the payment has been made. This includes a PDF listing the payments the vendor received in their ACH payment. (If multiple payments are made to a vendor, they are sent as one ACH payment.) You can even write helpful notes on the Payment Advice PDF, such as if you are taking advantage of a rebate, and have a copy of what is emailed sent to your credit union for confirmation and recording.

ACH vendor payments are processed on the same screen used to make check vendor payments. Helpful messaging on the screen makes it clear when the payment has been made. Staff can make one ACH payment at a time or process all ACH payments together (just like they make check payments except with different a different option and button on the same screen).

Operations Side of CU*BASE and Magic Wrighter Setup

If you have a relationship with Magic-Wrighter, you can configure certain vendors to receive payment directly via ACH in addition to via check. The first step to set up ACH payments is to contact a CSR to set up the same relationship with Magic Wrighter that you need to send Account-to-Account (A2A) transfers (ODFI status is required.) (Self Processor, this is done via the CU Master Profile in the Operations Edition of CU*BASE.)

Activation of ACH and ACH Notifications

Then you can activate ACH accounts payable processing using Tool #1900 Workflow Controls: Accounts Payable. Here you activate both ACH payments and also notification of payments to vendors. A FROM email address to use for the notifications is also entered on this screen.

Configuration at the Vendors Level

Then use Tool #990 Work With Accounts Payable Vendors to set up ACH routing information for any vendors you’d like to pay this way. From that point on, all payments to that vendor will automatically be processed via ACH. The fields for setting up ACH are on the Accounting and Misctab on the vendor detail screen.

You can also elect to send an email when the payment is sent with an attachment listing the ACH payments made, called "Payment advice." To configure that this is sent, check the "send ACH payment advice" box in the vendor detail screen, also on the Accounting and Misc tab. The email that the Payment Advice email is sent to is the email associated with the vendor, which is on the entry tab (Company Information tab) on the vendor detail screen.

Adding Payment Notes

(NOTE: This feature is only available if ACH Payment Advice is activated globally for the credit union in Tool #1900 Workflow Controls: Accounts Payableand then also at the vendor level inTool #990 Work With Accounts Payable Vendors.)

While organizing your invoices for payment using Tool 1960: AP2: Organize AP Invoices for Processing you can elect to add a special payment note Payment Advice PDF in the form of a note under the payment details. You might use this note to explain he reason for an over- or under-payment, such as a rebate.

Select the invoice and then "ACH pmt advice note" to access the ACH Payment Advice Notes by Vendor screen where you can add the note.

Paying Invoices by ACH

Invoices are paid via ACH on the same screen that is used to pay vendors by check. When processing payments, you can pay all ACH items in a batch, or pick and choose individual items to pay as you wish using Tool #1961: AP3: Process Accounts Payable Payments. The nice thing about making payments this way, is that if multiple ACH payments are made to a single vendor, they will be bundled in one ACH payment.

Before the payments are made, there will be three asterisks in the Bank column, to indicate they are to be paid via ACH. The St column will be blank. After the payments are made, the Bank column will be blank and the St column will read PD.

To pay one invoice, select it and then Process Payment. To pay all ACH payments on the screen, use Pay These ACH. To exit the screen, use Save/Done.

Notification to Vendors of ACH Payments

When the payment is made, the vendor gets an email to the email address configured in the vendor configuration. The From address is the address configured in the ACH Workflow Controls. Along with email titled “ACH Email Advice” is the Payment Advice attachment including the details of payment.

Notification to Credit Union of ACH Payments

The credit union can receive a copy of the email (and Payment Advice PDF with notes) that is sent when an ACH payment is made to a vendor. This is configured by checking "Email copy of payment advice to From email address" in Tool #1900 Workflow Controls: Accounts Payable This is sent to the From email configured on this screen.